


When You Face the Ocean

by dramaticbanjo



Category: Inazuma Eleven GO
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-25
Updated: 2015-05-25
Packaged: 2018-04-01 06:11:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4008853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dramaticbanjo/pseuds/dramaticbanjo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nishiki is a sailor, and Zanark lives below the sea. Nishiki is curious, and Zanark is scheming.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When You Face the Ocean

Nishiki thought he would never get tired of the sea. The way the waves crashed, the way the boat rocked, the smell of the salty air and even the storms they had to sail through. Someoka, the captain he often sailed under, would laugh at his excitement; “Sometimes you act like you were born underwater rather than on land.”   
Other sailors sometimes looked at his cheerfulness as an ill omen.   
“He’s going to end up calling a storm to the ship.” One of the men grumbled, and another snorted, “Maybe he’ll end up jumping off the side to chase mermaids.” Before Someoka snapped at them to get back to work.   
Nishiki watched them go curiously, “Captain, why does everyone talk about mermaids? I thought they didn’t exist.”  
“They don’t, but you can’t exactly prove that.” The captain said seriously, watching cargo being loaded on board, “The men talk about them no matter what I do—you’d best ignore it.” Slightly troubled, Nishiki followed the captain as the conversation ended. 

Meanwhile, Gamma tried to bite Zanark again, only to get a fist to his stomach again. The silver haired male snarled, making Zanark laugh, hitting him in the face with his fin, “Ha! Hardly a challenge.”  
“Shut up!”  
“It’s true, seeing as you can’t even put a scratch on me.”   
With a growl, Gamma tried again, only to be flung back into the rocks. Zanark did an impressive yawn, showing off sharp teeth.  
“How boring.” Leaving that as parting words, Zanark swam away, abandoning Gamma to stew in his hurt pride.   
The waters were mostly empty, he saw a dark shape a ways away that might have been Alpha, but the stoic swimmer hadn’t made a move that he saw Zanark, so he ignored the other.   
Soon, he was the only one in the water, as he approached the route the ships took. The dark shadows of the ships moved ponderously across the surface of the ocean, slow, steady, and painfully clumsy looking.   
They were fascinating in a sort of sad, alien way, moving even slower than Sea Slug and with less grace than a crab.   
With a smirk, Zanark swam towards the closest one with a powerful push of his tail.

It was already dark, and Nishiki was leaning on the railing alone, head tipped up to look at the stars.   
“Oy.”  
The unfamiliar voice almost made him jump, and he looked left and right to see if another sailor had called him. There was an impatient huff, “How about you look down, idiot?”  
“Huh?” There was a boy maybe a year or two older than him apparently treading water, a smirk on his face and long, dark hair sticking to his shoulders and slicked down against his head from being underwater.   
“Oy, you.”  
“Wh-what are you doing in the water?”  
“Swimming, what the hell do you think?”  
The boy in the water rolled his eyes, “You people must be stupider than I thought.”  
“Hey!”   
A toothy grin was the other’s response, and Nishiki frowned, “Aren’t you cold or something? Do you want to come up? I can throw down a rope ladder for you.” The other boy seemed to consider it, almost like he would prefer to stay in the cold, dark water, than up on the ship. Finally, he spoke again, “Sure. Gives me a chance to see more of these ships anyways.” Nishiki was going to ask what he meant, but pushed it away in order to haul over the rope ladder and toss it over the railing. As an after thought, he dashed back to the storeroom to pick up one of the blankets that didn’t look too patched.  
When he returned the deck, the boy from the ocean was pulling himself up, and dropping the blanket in a pile, Nishiki ran to help him.   
“Thanks for the help.” There was a sarcastic, mocking tone, and Nishiki had to conclude that the mysterious swimmer was probably not very nice. Except all of his thought suddenly dropped off when the boy pulled himself up, and he almost dropped him. From below his waist, the other boy had a long, muscular tail like a fish’s, covered with burnished, metallic looking red and black scales. The fins were spiny and bone like, and also ran up the back of his tail as well.  
“You’re…you’re…you’re a mermaid!”  
“Merman. Don’t make me throw you into the water.” Seeing Nishiki’s shocked expression, however, made the merman just laugh, and he used Nishiki’s now unmoving arms and shoulders to hoist himself up onto the railing, “What, you thought we were a cute bed time story for you land dwellers?” Another laughs, and Nishiki managed to regain his speech, “What are you doing here?”   
“Looking.” He answered casually, idly flicking water droplets off of his tailfin, “What’s your name, human?”  
“N-Nishiki Ryouma.” The sailor could feel his ears burn a little at the small stutter, and the merman’s smirk told him that he had caught the slip as well, “Zanark Avalonic.”   
“Wh-what are you doing up here? I thought…I mean, I don’t now anyone who’s ever seen a mermai—merperson before.”  
“Like I said, I’m just looking. I’m curious about the human world, in a way. You’re all so clumsy, with your legs or whatever.” Zanark laughed again, and Nishiki quickly forgot his wonder in favor of feeling more and more embarrassed. The merman noticed, and that just made him smirk, “Why do you humans travel on these tubs? You’re a target for hurricanes.”  
“It’s not like we can swim across the ocean.”  
“Maybe if your people hadn’t developed such a fondness for cutting up merfolk you wouldn’t be stuck on them, eh?”   
His laugh had a hard, mocking edge to it when he saw Nishiki’s expression morph into horror, “What? Poaching us is one of your kind’s greatest trades.” He sounded remarkably unconcerned, even though he was sitting on a human ship, talking to Nishiki, “That’s…awful…”  
“Certainly.”   
Zanark stretched his back, hearing a few joints crack from sitting, “But no one can catch me, and I’ll just chew through the nets. You humans are remarkably uncreative after one success.” In contrast, Nishiki looked troubled, leaning on the railing, gripping it so hard his knuckles were turning white.   
“Oy, Ryouma.” The use of his first name made him look up quickly. For once in their conversation, Zanark didn’t have a smirk on his face, “What’s with that look on your face?”  
“…I’m thinking…on how to stop it.”  
“What, the hunting? Human vessels catch less and less each year…and we sink quite a few.” The smirk returned, “But you’re interesting.”  
“I-interesting?”  
“Most humans don’t try to talk to us.” Bracing himself against the railing, Zanark jumped off, gracefully diving into the water, only to resurface a few feet away, wiping hair and water out of his eyes, “Come on.”  
“W-what?!”  
Zanark rolled his eyes, gesturing with one hand, “I’m not going to eat you, or whatever story you’ve heard from the other sailors.”   
Biting his lip indecisively, Nishiki glanced back at the lights from the other part of the ship, where the rest of the ship hands were, and then back at the water, where Zanark was treading water with a smirk on his face.   
After another moment of hesitation, Nishiki pulled his shirt off, awkwardly climbing onto the railing and jumping. 

The water was shockingly cold, and for a moment, Nishiki thought he was going to drown. Zanark was in front of him, effortlessly able to stay still, laughing at Nishiki attempting to hold his breath. Circling him while Nishiki floundered in the water, Zanark suddenly came closer, so their noses were almost touching. Nishiki’s ears turned red again, and he had to fight to keep his mouth closed, letting a few bubbles escape in the process.  
Another laugh, and the merman leaned in, holding Nishiki still with his hands holding either side of the sailor’s face. Nishiki blushed even further, most of the air escaping from his mouth, until Zanark leaned in the rest of the way and kissed him. The merman’s muscular tail curled around his legs, and they slowly sank into the water, but Nishiki didn’t notice that, or how the light from the moon was getting fainter. He only felt how warm the merman was against the chill water, and how Zanark’s slightly sharper teeth grazed his skin.   
Only the strongest beams of light from the moon reached the rocks at the bottom, and Zanark eventually drifted down to the bottom, still holding onto the sailor. By now, there were no bubbles floating away from the couple, and the merman’s smile was more sincere, “How interesting…”


End file.
